Sen. Robert Smith (R-N.H.), the new Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman, plans tougher oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency.
He was named chairman Nov. 2, 1999, following the Oct. 24 death of Sen. Robert Chafee (R-R.I.), the previous chairman.
Smith told a National Manufacturers Association meeting that most EPA programs have escaped congressional review, but that will change in 2000 as the committee examines all of EPA?s $7.5 billion annual budget.
He said Congress currently has a ?rifle bore approach,? only examining major programs like the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.
?Let?s look at the whole of EPA?s budget in an authorizing manner. We need to know where EPA is sending money. Are they prioritizing properly, targeting their resources on the most critical programs? Or are they spending too much on popular boutique programs that divert resources from core, statutory responsibilities?
?We?ll be accused of harassing EPA but it?s our responsibility, and I intend to do it.?
Smith said combined sewage overflows were a good example of the need for prioritization of environmental problems.
?In many cases, CSOs contribute to a very small percentage of pollution to a river. Is it the right move, in order to get 2 percent of a problem (fixed), to spend millions of dollars that could get 20 percent of another problem (fixed), say a Superfund site? We should let local communities make those determinations,? he said.
Enforcement cases
Dalton Utilities, a municipal company that provides electricity, sewage treatment, natural gas, and drinking water for the city of Dalton, Ga., has been sentenced in Northern Georgia U.S. District Court for falsifying wastewater analysis in monthly operating reports between May 1994 and April 1995.
Dalton was fined $1 million and ordered to pay $500,000 of that immediately. The rest will be waived if Dalton completes an environmental compliance program during its three years probation.
EPA said Dalton Utilities, which treats city wastewater and that from several large carpet manufacturers, operates one of the few U.S. wastewater systems that discharges effluent to a land application system. It uses 31,000 spray heads to distribute wastewater over 10,000 acres.
Two former employees of Central Texas Utilities in Tarrant County, Texas, have been indicted in Fort Worth U.S. District Court on charges of conspiracy and on two counts of allegedly making false statements.Delbert Dake and Randall Taff were accused of falsifying the bacteriological count in water samples from drinking water systems in five north Texas counties. If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of up to 5 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $250,000 on each charge.
TCW Corp. of Perry County, Ohio, has pleaded guilty in Southern Ohio U.S. District Court to violating the Clean Water Act. TCW had a contract with Muskingum County, Ohio, to manage the county?s sanitary engineering department and run the county?s West Muskingum, Crestmont/Lebar, Stonehenge, Vista View, Ash Meadows, and Lakeland Hills wastewater treatment plants.Ronald Merckle, half owner of TCW, and William Rhoad, a project engineer for TCW, were both convicted of submitting false reports to the Ohio EPA.
